Aircraft: On the Line

Despite the fact that the Administration at
year's end named Boeing and General Electric as the winners of the
competition to build the U.S.'s first supersonic jet transport, the big
bird has remained in a stall. In a bind over budget and congressional
problems, President Johnson held back on funds that Boeing and G.E. need to make
prototypes. Last week, however, the
Administration hit on a new maneuver to start the SST toward the sky.

Quite simply, the Administration wants more tangible support from the
most voluble champions of the SST. This week chiefs of the plane's U.S.
customerseleven...